the tao of cycling: quirks

Friday, January 27, 2012

quirks

it's friday.
and I've written before about power camp fridays, how they are usually recovery days that involve gerbil leg work.
today's workout:
15 minute warm up, zone 2, 95 rpm
15 minute zone 3A 110-115 rpm
15 minute zone 3A 115-120 rpm
5 minute zone 3A 120-125 rpm
10 minute cool down, zone 2, 95 rpm
then off to the weight room, pump a little iron, stretch a few bands, do some balancing acts on the bosu ball.

blah, blah, blah, my only real point in listing it is to let you know that the cadence requirement kept going up, and that it got ridiculously high.
biking buddy bob suggested that J.R. just made this workout up so that it would appear we were doing something when really it was just about recovery.
recovery that makes me sweat like crazy.

and that was the long segue just to get to the conversation of the morning.
often it's Trivia Fridays, like last week, when we learned the speed records for riding a bike downhill on snow.
today it was about quirks.
leslie is helping us get to know about each other by asking us to reveal a quirk about ourselves.
when she first mentioned the topic and that we would have to share a personal quirk, I laughed. I have so darn many I could probably share one a day for the rest of power camp.
and they are all harmless, just silly things that are probably more revealing than I want to think about.
so for now, I'll share some quirks that belong to others in the class:

I never let my gas tank go below half full

I can't stand to be sticky, I shower at least three times a day, more often in summer

I love stale Peeps, but they have to be yellow, chicks, and exactly three days' stale

I count everything

I have to leave an even dollar amount for a tip, can't leave any change

when I microwave something I never use the number 5

I have this thing for odd numbers, always choosing them when I can over an even number

I love stale gummy bears

I can't stand to have any hair touch my face when I sweat

my closet is organized by color and sleeve length

I have to touch the outside of an airplane before I'll get in it

I have to check twice or even three times to make sure I've locked the door behind me

now the nice thing about this is you see just how normal you really are, that everyone else is full of what we'll nicely call "quirks" too.
and okay, I did slip mine in there, and it doesn't stick out at all, does it?
I'm sure all y'alls would slip neatly inside this list, too.

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the Male Ego

The other day I was coming down a canyon in my drop bars (two years ago I would have said, 'what's a drop bar?'), working hard, when I came up on two guys who were also heading downhill but at a more leisurely pace. I passed them, said hello as I did so, and pulled back into the bike lane. a few minutes later they went flying past me, faces looking dead ahead, not a single bit of acknowledgment that I even existed on this planet let alone was involved in and enjoying the same sport they were.
I have to attribute this to the male ego. what else can it be? now I know we all have egos, myself included. and mine even shows its ridiculous little head once in a while, or perhaps more often. but the difference between mine and say, those of certain men on bicycles, is that I KNOW mine exists and I can LAUGH at mine. I know my ego was quite excited to pass those guys, and I could also smile because I knew if the men had really been working like I was, they would have kicked my butt down the hill.
I think I pissed them off.
and I'm sure I will be sharing with you much more of my thoughts about the male ego . . .

a little history

I was married, and I had a mountain bike which I rarely rode. we separated, I moved out, and four months later someone stole my bike. the next spring, 2005, I bought myself a new mountain bike. I rode occasionally, and in april 2006 I rode in my first century, the Cactus Hugger in St. George, Utah. I made it 54 miles on that mountain bike, and it took me about 6 hours. I think that included the rest stops where I prayed that someone would steal my bike again . . .
in june 2006 I started riding my mountain bike five mornings a week, a 45-55 minute loop that was intended to be all about exercise. and what I found was that I loved the quiet, peaceful morning full of bird chatter and barely breaking sunrises. by that fall I was hooked, and began considering the purchase of a road bike. I rode up emigration canyon for the first time that Labor Day of 2006, panting and plowing along on my trusty (heavy) bike, and a month later I was the proud owner of my own road bike: I had become a two-bike girl!
a 17-week-long "power camp" over the winter and a handful of new friends kept bicycling front and center in my life, and when spring of 2007 rolled around I was ready to hit the pavement. I rode my first century the end of april, when I again went to St. George and completed that Cactus Hugger. it took me about 7 hours, but this time I rode the entire 100 miles with about 9300 feet of vertical gain. woo hoo!
I started riding canyons around our area, emigration and millcreek, city creek, big cottonwood, little mountain and big mountain, and once--yes, only once--little cottonwood.
then in september of 2007, I rode from Logan, Utah, to Jackson, Wyoming, in the slightly infamous LOTOJA race. I rode, I did not race. and I completed the thing, crediting my good training buddies, the incredibly perfect weather, my support team, and an amazing convergence of all things positive in the universe.
I put in about 3500 miles last season, and as of today, july 19, 2008, I have about 1700 in, adding to it every day.
I have again signed on to ride the LOTOJA race, and my goal is to have just somewhere near as great a ride as I did last year. oh, and to have someone fun to talk with along the way as I got incredibly bored last year . . . star valley is still a nightmare scene in my biking memories . . .
and here is a picture of the machine that has helped me reclaim my life.